


Self-Aware

by slotumn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Dark, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Jealousy, Manipulation, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Yandere, but like deep down he knows he's a creep, claude being a fucking creep, he does it anyway, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24412060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slotumn/pseuds/slotumn
Summary: Nonchalance was the key.
Relationships: Lysithea von Ordelia/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Slotumn Portfolio





	Self-Aware

Nonchalance was the key.

She was too sharp, too alert for him to get away with persistent, focused, straightforward moves. It would be bad if she thought of him as being creepy and intrusive, so every time he learned something new about her, he teased her about it a bunch. He was only remembering all these details so that he could tease her about it, she probably thought. 

Not that flustering her wasn't fun, but eventually, everything he memorized would serve far more important purposes than simple amusement.

\---

Some people tried to lock up and force their object of affections to return their love, but that wasn't his style. Nobody actually liked being held captive against their will. It made for a good fantasy or role-play scenario, but in reality, the victim was either going to hate and fear their captor, or brainwash themselves into believing it was love for the sake of their own survival.

And if she hated him, it was all meaningless. 

So everything had to look organic-- like the moments where he leaned in a little too close, brushed their hands together, made some "off-hand" comment about how she smelled sweet, just ambiguous enough to leave her confused, wondering, thinking about him.

"...You're awfully distracting, Claude, do you know that?" she told him one day, her lips in a cute little pout.

Upon hearing those words, he grinned, the shit-eating one that irritated her, to hide the shiver running down his spine.

\---

Five years later, things were a little different. 

He didn't consider them competitors, because that implied that he was on the same playing field as a couple of random soldiers who sometimes tried to chat her up. 

Her former house leader, studymate, and "awful distraction," competing with people who barely knew her beyond her titles? Absurd.

He gritted his teeth and told himself to not get hasty out of trivial things like jealousy. 

\---

And then one day, he saw her thank a church mage for help with spells and accept an invitation to dinner-- not at the dining hall, but at a tavern. The word got out quickly, and everyone in Golden Deer had a jolly fun time teasing her about her "first date."

Including him, although he laughed at the fact that it wouldn't be happening more than anything else.

\---

"...Ugh, I wasted my time, waiting that long only to get stood up," she muttered. 

"Hey, it happens," he said, patting her on the back of her fancier-than-usual dress. "Everyone's busy during war, sometimes they forget stuff."

"I know."

Her scrunched eyebrows betrayed that she was more upset about it than she wanted to be. So he gently took her hand-- the first time he'd done something like that outside of places like battle or training-- and tugged her out of her chair.

"Wh-what's this about?"

"Helping you get your mind off of a bad evening," he winked, "I know just the thing for that."

By the end of the stargazing session where they stayed too close (just the right amount) the whole time, the church mage he poisoned to be knocked out cold all evening, then sick in bed for at least a month afterwards, couldn't be further from her mind. 

\---

"Do you want anything for your birthday? Aside from cake, I mean."

She turned a page of the thick strategy textbook.

"I'm not so childish as to ask for gifts during wartime."

"It doesn't necessarily have to cost anything," he shrugged, casually enough that she must think he was being innocuous. "And even if it does, I'll still get you whatever I can, within reason."

Or even outside of reason, but he didn't need to say that out loud.

"...Anything?" she asked, glancing up.

"Anything," he replied, reaching out to let their fingers touch.

She didn't actually tell him what she wanted, so he got some chocolate and cookies alongside lilies from the greenhouse, tucking one behind her ear and telling her that it suited her.

When she called him a dense idiot with a blushing face and pulled him down to kiss him, he kissed her back a little too hard, squeezed her arms a little too tight, but she didn't seem to mind.

\---

He knew all her wants, needs, preferences, and matched them just right, so in theory, there was no reason for her to look anywhere else-- but real life always liked to throw twists. 

Thankfully, he was prepared for all of it, should such a thing happen.

Her correspondences and social relationships were all within a hand's reach. Whatever important event that occured in her life, he knew about it before she did, and when she caught onto that, he played it nonchalant, so that she'd dismiss it as just another side effects of his constant schemings and information gathering. Of course he'd be aware of everything was going around, since he was the leader of the Alliance, not to mention that their social circles were more or less the same. 

There was nothing strange about how their lives were synchronized to the millisecond.

\---

Occasionally, very occasionally, when she touched the excessive kiss marks and bruises he left on her neck with an unreadable expression, he saw exactly what kind of person he was.

Foul. Manipulative. Obsessive. Paranoid.

Then he pulled her into another kiss, wringing out enough love from himself to blind both of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> [LysiClaude week twitter](https://twitter.com/LysiClaudeWeek?s=20)  
>   
> [My twitter](https://twitter.com/slotumn?s=09)  
>   
> Alright so I'm having a little too much fun writing Claude being a creep.


End file.
